COBI 1939 Polish Army Major Figure Keyring Set 1368

A COBI minifigure of a Polish Army major of 1939 in printed uniform with the four-cornered cap, fixed to a matching brick with a metal chain and keyring. The connection points are glued so it survives daily use.

The cap has four corners

The rogatywka is one of the few military caps in the world that is not round, and the shape is genuinely Polish rather than borrowed.

It descends from the czapka worn by Polish light cavalry in the eighteenth century — the lancers whose style was copied across Europe after Napoleon recruited them. The four-cornered crown was theirs, and when Poland regained independence in 1918 the new army adopted it deliberately, as a visible statement that this was a continuation of something and not a new creation.

It is still worn by the Polish armed forces today, which makes it one of the longest-serving items of military headgear anywhere.

The figure represents September 1939, when the Polish army fought a campaign it could not win against two invasions from opposite directions, and then did not stop — its soldiers turning up in France in 1940, in Britain, at Tobruk, at Monte Cassino and in Normandy.

In the COBI range

One of a series of sixteen figure keyrings from the Historical Collection. Set 1373 is the retail display holding the full assortment. Sets 5742 and 5751 are the Polish aircraft of the 1939 campaign.

Specifications

Contents: one minifigure on a brick with metal chain and keyring · Glued connection points · Printed detail